Broccoli & Beef

It's been a week since I started working in downtown Seattle. With my new job and World Cup game, I haven't been cooking much. We've been going to George & Dragaon pub to watch the repeat broadcast (the pub records the game to show in the evenings) almost every night. So we've been eating typical bar food like burgers, fish & chips and chicken strips. Watching the games and drinking beer is exciting, but my stomach has not been happy recently.

During my trip to Europe, I realized along with my Japanese-American friend and Korean-German friend that when you are raised eating rice all the time, your body craves rice after not eating it for three days. We liked the food in Europe, but every three days or so, we found ourselves at a Chinese restaurant or Japanese restaurant just to eat some rice. It was easier in Spain since we could satisfy our need for rice from paella. My wife, who is American thinks if you are in a foreign country on a vacation, you should eat their local food. I completely agree, and as much as possible, I do try all the local goods, except my stomach needs rice once every three days or so. I wonder if this kind of thing happens to other people. Do Italians feel like they need to eat pasta at least twice a week?

Today is Fourth of July here in the States, and we will be going to a BBQ (I don't think there will be rice), so I cooked broccoli & beef for lunch. That's a popular dish at a Chinese restaurant, but it's easy to make, so here it is.

IN JAPANESE: Gyuniku to broccoli itame
CATEGORY: Meat
COOKING METHOD: Stirfried
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 2 people
LENGTH OF TIME: 15 min

INGREDIENTS:
5-6 thin sliced beef
1 head of broccoli
1/4 onions
some carrots (optional)
some mushrooms (optional)
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1/2 TBsp sesame oil
1/2 TBsp vegetable oil
2 TBsp oyster sauce
some pepper

HOW TO:
Warm up your wok and pour 1/2 table spoon of sesame oil and vegetable oil. I like to mix oils like that since that gives better flavor.

After the oil gets hot, cook the finely chopped garlic until the garlic flavor soaks into the oil (should be about a minute when the garlic pieces turn slightly brown).

Throw in all the vegetables and stir fry for about a minute, and then add the slices of beef to the wok.

When the beef is 90% cooked, pour the oyster sauce and some pepper into the wok and stir fry for about a minute more until all the sauce is evenly mixed with the beef and vegetables.

That's it! And serve with rice.